Chatbots are incredible tools for businesses. hey increase engagement, provide valuable market research and capture leads at the most opportune times. They can provide your sales and customer service teams with the information they need to win a sale or solve a problem.
Chatbots are programmed to provide your first impression and give consistency to your brand’s image and tone. Acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than keeping an existing customer, so responsiveness is key. Chatbots can be very helpful in solving and routing customer service issues.
For customer service purposes, a chatbot is a great first point of contact. However, it’s important to balance the use of chatbots with the use of live agents.
In this article, we’ll explore the best way to employ chatbots, which platforms to use and finally, some tips and tricks to make sure your chatbot is successful.
First Impressions Are Important
Automating your business operations can save companies money and time. Yet, there’s even more value chatbots provide besides saving you precious time and money. By using a chatbot, you ensure that a potential lead or frustrated customer is met with a cheerful response that is in line with your brand.
There are many examples of landing pages that successfully use chatbots to proactively gather information about leads or customers. Working with chatbots, you’ll be able to manage it to fit and respond to your specific customer demographics. You can program it to address frequently asked questions about your product or service.
Providing a consistent first impression is key to building trust and interest in your company’s product or service. Tons of user data and research studies have shown the best methods for how web pages can become more dynamic.on Modern back-end frameworks and templates resonate well with users to help create a good first impression when they visit your site.
Depending on the voice of your company, you’ll want to decide what message your customers should see first. Using a friendly, playful message to greet customers might be perfect for certain companies, such as online retail stores. Other companies, on the other hand, might benefit from a more professional and direct message that cuts to the point. Either way, a simple “How can I help you today?” from a chatbot can be key to opening up a conversation.
Be Where Your Customers Are
You’ll want your chatbot to be where your customers are. For example, if your company’s target demographic is young adults and teens, using a chatbot on WhatsApp, FB Messenger or SnapChat is a great idea. When users message your account, the chatbot should respond with relevant links that will direct users to your company’s website.
By using a chatbot and making sure that your company has a digital presence wherever your customers are, you can enhance quality lead generation and cultural relevance. You know the old saying that 80% of life is showing up? That applies to your company’s digital presence as well.
Find The Right Platform
So,which platforms should you focus on to transform your digital marketing funnel? The truth is, your company should try to have an account on as many social media websites as possible. There are definitely social media websites that draw different types of crowds, so it’s important to consider that when creating your social media content.
Another effective sales conversion technique is engaging in consistent email marketing. Make sure you build a quality email list. You can use bots as a way to encourage connection with a live agent, and not the other way around.
Chat bots are great for all the reasons we’ve mentioned:
- create consistent good first impressions
- respond instantly
- cost less than live agents
- have a broader reach.
In the end, don’t ignore the most important function of chatbots: as a channel leading to an interaction with a real person.
Bots can actually increase leads and sales conversions. They only forward highly qualified leads to sales reps and filter out the time-wasters. We know all too well the frustrating experience that is possible with phone bots or chat bots that are not properly equipped to handle questions or issues.
Up to 80% of customers will stop doing business with a company simply because of poor customer service. Make sure your bot knows when enough information has been gathered to pass the message on. Sometimes, sending the contact to a sales rep is the logical next step, or in cases when a customer service issue exceeds what a bot can handle.
Get To Know More About Your Leads With Surveys
Bots aren’t just for sales and customer service. Bots can also be a great way to do marketing research. They can encourage visitors to sign up for a newsletter or take advantage of a promotion.
Another powerful chatbot tool is inserting a call to action on your landing page that will help build your email list. You can also incorporate a survey with your chatbot – a simple question such as “What brings you to our site today?” with a variety of options to easily click on can reveal a lot about your customers.
Take Advantage of Multilingual Bots
It’s difficult to find a person who can speak dozens of different languages. For a chatbot, that’s easy. Whether you are a retailer looking to increase your international ecommerce sales or a SaaS company looking to expand your sales funnel, multilingual chatbots and websites are a must. Think about it: most foreign language speakers would likely consider buying a product if they could learn more about it in their native tongue.
Emphasize Privacy and Security
Remember that chatbots are used in just about every industry imaginable, including travel, fintech, banking, and online retail. Each of these are industries that deal with very sensitive information including financial details or personal identification information. A large percentage of users will give this kind of sensitive information to chatbots, and this information can be vulnerable to cybercriminals.
You should therefore be mindful of asking for private details from customers using chatbots, as this can be a red flag for users. Potential leads can get worried that hackers are trying to hijack their phone or tablet.Open-ended questions are sometimes best for getting the information you need to route a request.
You also need to take action to ensure that your bots can be made secure. There are a variety of ways to help do this. One way is to invest in a robust virtual private network (VPN), which works by encrypting the data that users enter into chatbots. Another method is to establish HTTPS protocols that can protect the data sent into a chatbot from becoming corrupted thanks to TSL or SSL. Lastly, you could require authentication from users to verify them before they can access or submit any sensitive information into the chatbots of your site.
Keep Your Bots Relevant
Unfortunately, bots are not sentient beings who understand the complexities of human emotion and current events. You will need to make sure that your chatbot does not come off insensitive or tone deaf by accident. For example, certain travel companies came under fire for pushing travel promos during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
The promotions were planned months prior to the outbreak of the virus, but were not pulled from all channels in a timely manner. As a result, the company came off as irresponsible and unethical because they did not adapt their ads and chatbots to the current global situation. Although robots are amazing at many things, it’s evident that automation and AI could lead to a public relations nightmare if not handled appropriately by their humans.
Conclusion
In your quest to convert more sales, provide better customer service, and enhance your workflow you’ll want to utilize the power of chatbots. By correctly utilizing chatbots and live chat widgets, your brand can save a lot of money, convert sales and boost your brand’s image.
